Just four days until our departure for the Adirondacks. Oh, how I loathe the packing up and preparation! We bring most of our food with us, so it's a complicated procedure. We are going to the wilderness, after all. Of course, there is a grocery store in North Creek, a nine-mile drive from our camp, but it's a far cry from the stores we're used to at home.

If you have any interest at all in knitting, please visit my new knitting blog, "Madame DuFarge: Knitting in Desperate Times." I created it because I need a place to write about my current knitting compulsion and a literary blog is certainly not the place to do that! Knitting has been a godsend to dealing with all the angst I feel about the presidential campaign and the tragedy and suffering of civilians in Iraq.

I will say also that the knitting has really helped me control my anxiety about Ken's and my new major life transition following his leaving the Globe and the development of his new PC consulting business and as I expand my writing and editing business. Two entrepreneurs in one household can be nerve-wracking for all parties concerns. For all you Boston-area readers, Ken has been helping Globe writers and editors with their PC problems for more than twenty years. His clients include Larry Tye, author of Rising from the Rails: The Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class, and Dick Lehr, author of the bestselling Black Mass:The True Story of the Unholy Alliance between the FBI and the Irish Mob and his latest <em>Judgment Ridge: The True Story Behind the Dartmouth Murders.

On the literary front: I dipped into David Sedaris's latest Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim while doing the cardio routine at the gym and must report that I'm not finding it compelling reading. I read "Blood Work," his memoir of his days cleaning houses for a living in New York City. It was amusing, but gross, in a way, and not really all that unusual or unique to warrant all the hype the book has received. I then read the next piece and the next about his sister, but I found it very dull. I will definitely read the first few pieces in the book before rendering my final verdict, just to be fair.

I have amassed all the books for our trip. On the way up, we're going to listen to Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. I can't believe that neither of us has read this yet. I loved Krakauer's Into the Wild which I read last spring about a young man who takes going back to nature to the extreme. A fascinating, journalistic tale of suspense, really.

I still have alot more to post. Maybe I'll be able to drop a line later today.